Patient safety and the quality of patient care
Introduction
Patients are always expected to stay safe and access quality health care whenever they check in at any health facility. Achieving the desired safety and quality has been a challenge for frontline health practitioners. Such situations in most cases involve incorporation of proper health information to improve the overall efficiency. Health information systems is considered as one the loopholes that can be used improve quality and safety of health care. Adoption of the health information technology can help improves patient’s safety situation by ensuring medical errors are reduced, improving compliance to practice guidelines and reducing adverse drug reactions. To enhance quality and safety of patient care, medical facilities implementing better health care information system have to ensure that health care information is well governed, safety risk identified, health care stakeholders are involved, cost effectiveness of the systems assessed, proper training is accorded , the system is implemented gradually, technology used is optimized and technology regulated updated. Based on the assumption that patient safety and treatment quality can be enhanced by improved health information systems, the essay review content of three peer-reviewed articles addressing the impact HIS have on patient safety and quality delivery.
Alotaib, Y., & Federico, F. (2017). The impact of health information technology on patient
safety. Saudi Medical Journals, 38(12), 1173-1180. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.15537%2Fsmj.2017.12.20631
The article report various information technology measures incorporated in health care to achieve better patient safety and increase health care quality. The study is founded on Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) 1999 reported that faulted human ability to make errors. Based on the assumptions, professionals felt the only way to enhance quality of the result obtained in healthcare is by incorporating information technology in the system to reducing medication errors, reducing adverse drug reactions, and improving compliance to practice guidelines. Some of the ways information system technology can be applied as mentioned in the article are incorporated in clinical decision support, remote patient monitoring, EMR system, patient record documentation in the electronic portal, automated medicine dispensing techniques and Bar code medication administration.
Feldman, S., Buchalter, S., & Hayes, L. (2018). Health Information Technology in
Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety: Literature Review. JMIR Medical Informatics, 6(2), e10264. doi: 10.2196/10264
The article make conclusion from thematic analysis of the 41 selected articles that had relevant in information on improvement of medication quality and safety through incorporation of better health information technology. The literature review uses prevention, identification and action as the pre-set categories for the analysis. The study uses the United States as the case study based on their health care system that everyone felt was expensive and review how technology has been used to influence the uncontrollable cost and unpredictable outcomes. The study bases it assumption on the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) point of view that reliability can be enhanced by focusing on the three part cycle which are failure prevention, identification and action. The literature review article used peer review article inclusion system that were published between the year 2012 and 2017. Moreover, high level keywords was used to choose the most relevant articles relevant to IT incorporation in health care quality and safety. The study uses Qualitative data analysis software to categorize, analyze and code the chosen 41 articles.
Lavin, M., Harper, H., & Lavin, N. (2015). Health Information Technology, Patient Safety,
and Professional Nursing Care Documentation in Acute Care Settings. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 20(2). doi: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol20No02PPT04
The study uses experiential-reflective reasoning to draw healthcare practitioner’s assumptions on electronic health record (EHR) based on the point of view of nurses who are directly involved in healthcare. The articulation and reflection is based on the bedside nurses concern on electronic health record (EHR). The bedside nurses are used because of their direct involvement in planning and they include nurses coordinating care process, visiting nurses, general nurses, nurses involved in advanced practices and public health nurses. The publication used as reference ranged from 2004-2014. The article summaries Nursing Practice Committee (NPC) of the Missouri Nurses Association (MONA) concerns on EHR and its ability help build confidence during patient care process. Moreover, the article present information regarding how innovation like big data and electronic measures used to enhance patient care and care quality.
Conclusion
The general assumption conclude that elaborate health care information technology can be used to make healthcare experience more safe and of great value. Health care require proper planning and clear implementation strategy to enhance the efficiency. The health care experience has transitioned from the slow past to enhanced future where technology is expect to enhance the quality of health care needed. With the advancement of technology, better health care delivery assumptions is expected and valued. Therefore, improved, advanced or better health information systems can be positively used to make quality and safety of healthcare better. The future lies on big data analysis and artificial intelligence learning to help identify and offer standard attention to everyone.